Sunday, 17 June 2012

Just to set your minds at rest - last evening's meal was very good. It was elegantly served, well-seasoned, pretty, with some surprises and copious.

First, the mayor made his second speech in 2 days - he hates making speeches and keeps them very short.

Jean-Louis orates

First course

For apéritif I drank a kir royale with crème de pêche - a very elegant drink and I think better than the classic blackcurrant - and it was a discovery for me. We'll be drinking more of that! This sparked a conversation about Champagne and how much our immediate table neighbours like it and me of course, I like it too. And I discovered something else I have to try - soupe de Champagne - which is a red fruit salad with Champagne. The conversation then went on to champagne sauerkraut which surprised me - someone (not me) said what a waste and was roundly defeated - the fresh sauerkraut is cooked in champagne and apparently all is then very well. After that Gilberte mentioned fish sauerkraut and I lost interest in cabbage products and went back to bubbly. Anyway...

First course: iced melon soup with mint, an aromatic grissini with jambon de pays and beetroot sprouts as garnish. Delicious - fresh tasting, nice presentation and surprisingly filling. I really liked the sprouts but they were not universally adored - mostly just ignored.

Second course

Second course: saddle of rabbit with Mediterranean vegetables, polenta from locally grown organic maize, tapenade (which was delicious with the polenta) and a piece of tomato confit - also excellent. The rabbit was perfectly cooked, which is not necessarily easy with saddle and the medley of vegetables perfectly diced and cooked to an unctuous yet not slimy sauce. My vis à vis had never eaten polenta - she polished it all off, doesn't like olives but ate her tapenade with the polenta and doesn't like peppers but enjoyed the sauce because she couldn't pick out the things she didn't like. Hah! I did see that one old giffer didn't even touch his polenta - his loss I'd say - enormous portions. Oh, and leek sprouts as garnish.

Our just desserts

White chocolate mousse with strawberries and spun sugar. KK says it looked like golden dragonfly wings - truly elegant, beautiful and delicious. Delicate and light as a cloud. Lovely meal - really good food - what more could we ask for???

Are we happy? Yes, we are. Happy as bubbly, rum punch, wine and tasty nibbles can make a person or 100 odd people, which is quite happy. And noisy. And warm. Lots of happy people came out in the sunny evening to see what was up. They came smiling and stayed quite a while, smiling more and more. I was told that the punch was not very alcoholic. I knew better and I was right. The person who made it said it was traitorous and I agree. However, it was delicious with dark and light rum, orange juice, guava juice (yum), cinnamon, vanilla... I did taste it, just to make sure. It really was delicious. Left hand, rum punch, right hand, bubbly. One has to be very sure.

A short speechette by the mayor and a nice welcome speech by Aurélie - Isa disappeared into the kitchen when asked to say anything. The place looks nice, shelves are up in the bar, the footie was on telly for the kids and others. The Illy espresso machine is installed - hello daughter! Basic groceries are available for purchase and local goods will be added. There will be a bar menu for those who want to eat, drink and watch the footie or who are too tired to go home and heat up a frozen pizza. Beer pumps are on and they have gas in the kitchen as from this evening. Isa cooked a lot of the stuff for tonight in her own personal kitchen - hmm. And they still don't have all the cold space they need.

Me talking to Isa

So, quiche which was universally acclaimed, canapés, pinxos, or toasts - whatever you want to call them with peppers (red and green) topped with mozarella (made for me because I wanted peppers for tomorrow evening and Isa noticed my rude pining behaviour 3 days ago when we chose the menu). Also, she remembered that I am allergic to nutmeg and put no nutmeg in anything - I think I'm in love. Then there were sausage rolls - pretty nice, and my favourite - little choux pastries with smoked salmon, whipped cream, dill and lemon - I know because I asked (only because of the allergies, natch). I had to check they were all right and by the fifth I was pretty sure they were good. The cream went every where - an elderly gent I didn't know wiped his hand on my Gerard Darel silk shirt (that's what I wore) in a friendly fashion and then explained that it wouldn't show so much on my shirt as on his, because mine is a leopard print. Hmm. Many children, happy older people, happy councillors, happy mayor.

The Bar

Happy punch drinkers

As an aside, at home between the plastering, painting, glueing and etc. we found another hen's nest today with a new egg from a different hen. At some point I may bore you with the entire saga of hens, narcolepsy and escapology. For now, as we wait for the other Cécile to appear demanding a tasty supper snack (there really is another Cécile who does not live here and is not me). It will be mushroom soup, with the leftover chanterelle white wine cream sauce I served with pork chops in the week and pâté and stuff with Gérald the baker's bread and some fresh apricots or cherries. Simple and just as well given the amount of bubbly one consumed...

Thursday, 14 June 2012

We’ve been in the other yellow kitchen for 6 weeks and I
haven’t written one word of blog. There are many excuses I could make, none of which
are interesting, unless you are imminently visiting – i.e. the bathroom is
nearly ready and the guest quarters look lovely. Also KK has planted a garden –
which is important food news. 50 tomato plants, salading, herbs, a new raised
bed and incipient tidiness in other garden zones.

There has been excellent food, naturally. The lovely
daughter was already here when we arrived and had been subsisting entirely on
canned and bottled products from the cellar. Lucky her. Our first guests
arrived four days after we did. The Blacksmith gave us one of his late geese to
eat on the 8th of May (VE day) after much post ceremony drinking and
eating of the baker’s snacks and petits fours. The Blacksmith’s lady hereinafter
known as the Artist, gave us an enormous rabbit which I cooked, as usual in
white wine and mustard. More about rabbit some other time – rabbit will feature
much in our diet, since the Artist has a gift for rodent rearing. Our nice
guests also took us to Chez Poirier
(see previous eulogies) where a suitably delicious and gargantuan meal was
eaten after perusing the Monday market in Chalais. There are also photos of food somewhere in a
camera which will form part of a blog at some point.

The main point of
this meandering is to tell the world that the bar restaurant in Petit Bersac is
opening on Monday.

I can’t tell you how excited we are! If you thought we
were excited about the bakery … well...

Officially, the restaurant opens on Monday 18th
June 2012 at noon and I proudly reserved the first table. Yes! But tomorrow – Friday 15th
at 5pm the village is invited to aperitifs and nibbles to meet the restaurant
ladies. There will be photos, there will be excitement, there has been gossip. Two
women with a small red-headed and adorable child; the mother of the chef was an
accountant and now looks after the baby. Isabelle (call me Isa, I’m shy and I
love food) the chef, and Aurélie (I manage stuff) who will do everything else
except build stuff and hew wood – Isa does that. Likeable, competent,
enthusiastic, brave and, above all here, in our newly renovated bar, grocery,
restaurant. We are excited, proud, and we wish them all the very, very best. Please
be successful and please stay.

Le Vin Doux, open seven days a week for lunch and dinner,
from dawn to late for coffee and drinks and buying a bag of pasta. Local food,
produced by local people, fresh – there is no freezer – modern and respectful of
tradition.

And I’ll be there on Saturday too – the council is having first
dinner there and significant others are invited (KK is quietly pleased). So there
will be news – I know what the menu is because I chose it and I’m not telling, but I'm quietly confident.

About Me

Friends and food. Food and friends. Food with friends. Food for friends. Food is a great connector. My French family fostered in me an appreciation and interest in food (and drink), later enriched by my travels and sojourns in far flung parts of the world, where quite often we ate terrible food. Later, I became an accomplished cook thanks largely to KK, who loves food, understands the social and chemical complexities of cooking and eating and has a fine palette. We talk about food as we eat and as we cook. We collect food and store too much of it. As one of my dear friends said one day at a party "Oh Cécile, the food! The people! But the food!"